Placenta Might Have Its Own Helpful Bacteria – WebMD

Placenta Might Have Its Own Helpful Bacteria – WebMD: How newborns receive the colonies of helpful bacteria that reside in all people and make human life possible has been a mystery.

A new study suggests that the placenta -- long thought a sterile environment -- actually contains a small but diverse bacterial community (a "microbiome") that might serve a crucial role in preparing newborns for life outside the womb.

"We hypothesize it's the first feeding of the infant's microbiome," said lead author Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "The different bacteria that we observed in the placenta are the same bacteria we see in the infant in the first week of life."

The bacteria in the placenta most closely resemble the bacteria that normally reside in a person's mouth, the researchers noted.